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Satan Met a Lady (1936) starring Warren William and Bette Davis

Based on Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon are words sure to open any look at Satan Met a Lady. They are usually followed by some sort of scorn ranging from disappointment to ridicule. At the very best Satan garners tempered enthusiasm. That will be our route.

So disconnected and lunatic are the picture’s incidents, so irrelevant and monstrous its people, that one lives through it in constant expectation of seeing a group of uniformed individuals appear suddenly from behind the furniture and take the entire cast into protective custody. – Bosley Crowther, New York Times, July 23, 1936

An inferior remake of The Maltese Falcon … There’s hardly any mystery in this version. The comedy isn’t strong enough to fill the bill. – Variety Staff

Getting off to a rather confused start and frequently deviating from its main course, the yarn holds interest chiefly by the work of a good cast, which for the most part is obliged to perform more or less goofy roles. – Film Daily, July 23, 1936

“Honey, it blows!” – Ted Shane to Valerie Purvis as he sucessfully clears the blockage in Roland’s Trumpet.

Let’s get it out of the way. The 1941 John Huston film trumps this 1936 comedy version directed by William Dieterle on every count: it’s smarter, slicker, darker, stylized as compared to routine studio churn, more faithful to the source material. Heck, The Maltese Falcon is even funnier than Satan Met a Lady, even if the humor is black compared to Satan’s heavy-handed screwball formula.

Warren William gets a bit carried away playing King Kong to Bette Davis

Bogart is an absolute sensation as Sam Spade and, even if you generally love him, Warren William’s Ted Shane really doesn’t deserve to be spoken of in the same conversation as Bogie when it comes to this part. Even here, the home of all things Warren William, not only won’t I compare Warren’s Shane to Bogie’s Spade, but I think smilin’ Ricardo Cortez did a better job in his version, the earliest adaptation from 1931. That film starring Cortez is much closer in tone to the later Huston film with Bogart, even sharing the proper title as passed down from Hammett’s novel.

If you’re already familiar with Warren William’s work in other detective series, think of the zaniest couple of his Perry Mason movies or the most off the wall of his later Lone Wolf entries, slap that mood over the story of The Maltese Falcon and then remove the Falcon itself along with the punchlines to most of the jokes. Satan Met a Lady will make the Warren William fan smile, yet often leave you wondering if you missed the payoff as it moves from scene to scene.

William consoles his partner’s widow, played by Wini Shaw

There’s a big problem looming for you, I, or anyone under the age of 85 when it comes to Satan Met a Lady, and that is that later adaptation of The Maltese Falcon starring one Humphrey Bogart. I find it very difficult to distance myself from that classic when talking about Satan Met a Lady and, as usual, I viewed all versions again this week just to make absolute sure I don’t misrepresent any of them in any way. With the 1941 movie and its source material so firmly and deservedly cemented as classics, today it is easy to wonder what anyone responsible for Satan Met a Lady was thinking when they took the hard-boiled story in a completely opposite direction.

Warner Brothers made a very entertaining adaptation of The Maltese Falcon in 1931. It flopped. But MGM made a wildly successful adaptation of another Dashiell Hammett story, The Thin Man, in 1934. The success of The Thin Man almost immediately penetrated our world of Warren William as evidenced by the turn in tone between the first and second entries in the Perry Mason series of films that Warren starred in.

Charles C. Wilson and Olin Howland with Warren William

Meanwhile The Thin Man caused sales of all of Hammett’s books to rise and there was Warner Brothers with the rights to this story that they had already done the one time. Warners’ had abandoned the idea of a Falcon sequel even before MGM struck gold with The Thin Man, but eventually came upon the idea to recycle the original story that they held rights to with some changes so that it wouldn’t be immediately apparent to paying audiences that they were using the same story over again just a few years later.

Thus the black statuette became Roland’s Trumpet; Sam Spade was now Ted Shane; and the hard-boiled pre-Code film tried to be a wacky screwball comedy.

The fabled horn. Warren William and Bette Davis

Besides Spade’s name every other character in the story had their name, and in one case their sex, changed as well. The most difficult component of the project to put name to was the actual film itself. From script to release it went through several name changes: The Money Man, Filthy Lucre, The Man With the Black Hat, Beware of Imitations, Every Girl for Herself, Hard Luck Dame,Men on Her Mind and, finally, Satan Met a Lady.

Warren is the “Satan” of the title. As a July 1 story synopsis explains:

William, in the role of Ted Shayne, a satanic private detective, experiences considerable difficulty keeping his sometimes questionable professional activities segregated from his affairs d’amour, a failing that is constantly getting him into trouble with various individuals including his secretary, Murgatroyd, Astrid, the wife of his partner Ames, with the police and as the story opens, with Valerie Purvis, a young woman who seeks his aid in looking for a man named Farrow (Kiszely 71).

Obviously Shane’s satanism was not literal in the way we think of the term today, but more a description of the generally low behavior that saw him tossed out of town in the film’s opening scene as well as his behavior towards the women who cross his path. Unfortunately, this is all a bit tame by the already established Warren William pre-Code standards and if you’re amongst those who can stand the movie then William’s Shane winds up far from diabolical.

Marie Wilson in Warren’s arms.

As Kyle Dawson Edwards points out in his informative look at film adaptations, “The fact that The Maltese Falcon was never under consideration as a title indicates Warner Bros.’ intent to distance Satan Met a Lady from both the 1930 novel and its own 1931 film adaptation” (321). Edwards also draws attention to the advertising and promotion of Satan Met a Lady. In ballyhoo mentioning the story as being based on Hammett’s writings he’s tabbed not as the author of The Maltese Falcon but as the force behind The Thin Man.

Notice that the long list of titles begins with a focus on a masculine character before suddenly drifting to a more feminine focus. Warren William is certainly The Man With the Black Hat throughout much of Satan Met a Lady, but it was Bette Davis who was the Hard Luck Dame when Warner Brothers assigned her to this project just a couple of days after she had completed work on The Petrified Forest (1936).

Bette Davis, trying not to be noticed.

Davis had won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Dangerous (1935) earlier in 1936, but was nonetheless being rushed from one project to another by her employer. She revolted. Claiming illness she was unavailable for the studio’s doctor. She did not appear at work that Monday and was placed under suspension by Tuesday. It was a brief rebellion with the suspension lifted when she showed up to work that Friday.

The lack of interest shows through in her Valerie Purvis. Not that Warren is worlds better as Shane, but he at least seems to be enjoying what he’s doing. I got the feeling that director Dieterle just told his cast to have fun and let’s get this over with and that, if anything, Warren was more skilled than Davis in just putting himself out there to act the fool. Davis often seems uncomfortable, and you can’t really blame her.

Bette Davis is actually pretty funny in this quick gag, after Warren demands, “Scratch your head, sweetheart, with both hands. I’m going to search the place.”

The menu of additional actors includes Alison Skipworth as Madame Barabbas, Satan’s version of Sydney Greenstreet’s fat man, Gutman. Again, Greenstreet is iconic and Skipworth can’t hope to compare, but if you can separate the two performances she passes muster. Her scene bandying with William’s Shane is one of the better moments in the entire movie. Her nephew, Kenneth, or “little chubby” as Shane calls him, is pretty humorous as the psychopathic gunsel we better know as portrayed by Elisha Cook, Jr. in ‘41. Arthur Treacher takes on the Peter Lorre role, here an umbrella toting Brit named Travers, who shares a scene containing some of Satan’s more surrealistic dialogue and behavior with William immediately after his Travers has overturned Shane’s apartment in search of the Trumpet.

Satan Met a Lady ties itself a bit closer to The Thin Man by way of Porter Hall’s inclusion in the cast. Here Hall plays Shane’s partner Ames, and so anyone recalling the fate of Jerome Cowan’s Archer realizes that Hall won’t be around very long. Wini Shaw plays Mrs. Ames, one of Shane’s past conquests who won’t go away, while the two cops on Shane’s tail are portrayed by Charles C. Wilson and Olin Howland. Howland popped up alongside Warren William pretty often during this period.

Marie Wilson, not quite yet 20 years old, plays Shane’s secretary, Murgatroyd — ”Sounds like the technical name for killing your mother,” says Shane in one of William’s best lines. Wilson reminded me of Alice White in the role, though she oozed more innocence than sex appeal in between her squeals and coos. She winds up figuring in even more scenes than Bette Davis and while I won’t blame you if she rubs you wrong, Wilson did receive quite a bit of praise for her portrayal at the time of the movie’s release. I’ll add that given repeated viewings she has grown on me over time.

Marie Wilson as Murgatroyd

Just prior to the release of Satan Met a Lady Warren William bought back his contract from Warner Brothers. In consecutive paragraphs Film Daily announces Satan’s July 22 premiere just above news of Warren’s signing of his four movie deal with Emanuel Cohen, who soon co-starred Warren with Mae West in Go West Young Man (1936). Bette Davis next starred in the excellent Marked Woman (1937) for Warner Brothers. Humphrey Bogart co-starred. Satan Met a Lady came and went.

It’s a disappointing curiosity piece for fans of either the famed film version of The Maltese Falcon or the work of its author, Dashiell Hammett. Infuriating curiosity piece may describe it better for Bette Davis fans, who’ll likely be wondering how Marie Wilson was given so much more to do than the screen legend. But for Warren William fans it’s a fun little detective movie that makes for good viewing mixed in amongst Perry Mason and Lone Wolf movies.

Just try not to think about the black bird and you should have a good time.

Probably not the best movie to be trumpeting this claim, though note the final word discloses this captioned image as an advertisement. From The Daily Times of Beaver and Rochester, August 27, 1936.

Satan Met a Lady is available on DVD as part of Warner Home Video’s two disc, three film special edition set of The Maltese Falcon.

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Comments

Hi! You need to update your shopping guide by adding Warner Archive’s THE PHILO VANCE COLLECTION which contains Warren’s go-round as the titular sleuth, “The Dragon Pool Mystery” and FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD VOL. 7 which contains two of his finest Pre-Code star-making roles, “Skyscraper Souls” and “Employees Entrance.” Surprisingly, in light of Warner Archives past treatment of Warren’s films, they are both remastered! Check out my in depth reviews of both on Amazon.com. If you would like to use any of my material from them or any other of my Warren William film reviews on Amazon, be my guest, just credit the source! Be seein’ ya! JOHN McCARTHY

Turner Classic Movies is showing SATAN MET A LADY this month (June 2013) as a “Cult Pick.” It seems that people are finally beginning to appreciate this satirical and often hilarious film. Here’s their take, notice the glowing references to Warren.

This is almost as sad as when a couple of months ago TCM featured THE WOLF MAN on their weekly ESSENTIALS program with Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore. They both loved the movie and discussed all the leading characters in great detail EXCEPT Warren Wiiliam, even though he had second billing! So to all Warren fans: Keep the flame burning! Recommend him to everyone you know that loves cinema! I wish I could speak for a few minutes with Robert Osborne. Warren deserves a “Star Of The Month” retrospective and his own feature documentary……

P.S. Does anybody know how to contact Robert Osborne by mail or snail mail in a way that guarantees he would read your letter?

I fixed the typo and edited the post to link to the TCM article rather than copy it over here–they wouldn’t like seeing their work pasted over here.

I originally posted this article the same day that TCM aired it, June 7 — it has now played already, at the tail end of a night of Dashiell Hammett based movies.

I should point out that your mention of “glowing references to Warren” refers to the fact that the writer didn’t bother mentioning him at all.

That’s the fate of this one, consigned to “travesty” status when talking about either Hammett or Bette Davis and, rightfully, this movie would be to the taste of fans of neither. The support over here largely separates it from that context and those two talents to evaluate it on its own merit–I like it myself, have been stunned by even stronger support from others! At the end of the day, there have been worse overall literary adaptations and there have been worse Bette Davis movies (I think Front Page Woman is pretty terrible myself), but the combo here makes Satan a favorite target.

I don’t like as much as a few of the others do here, but I don’t think that Satan is anywhere near as bad as the reputation it has taken on.

The one great virtue that WW brings to this film is that he makes all his lines sound like ad-libs, which seemes the proper spirit since the film seems a bit of a throwaway from the studio. I also like Marie Wilson’s dumb-blonde act; she’s always so touching and sweet to watch onscreen, she brings out all my protective instincts.

The dumb-blonde act used to wear thin on me and I was kind of dreading it when I pulled the movie out again this week, but it had a lot more charm than I remembered.

What a strange mess though, the young Wilson standing out more than the Oscar winning actress and the leading man severing ties with the studio right before the movie was released. I’m surprised WB bothered promoting it at all.

I enjoyed very much reading this review & looking at the lovely still photographs from the film. Say ignorance is bliss, but I got in late (just past the titles) the first time I ever saw this movie, & didn’t even realize it was supposed to be based on “The Maltese Falcon” until the Roland’s horn theme popped up. That probably exposes me as being in a state of below-par comprehension that night, but it allowed me to sail through this giddy farce utterly enchanted by the arch-witted Warren William seemingly having the time of his life making an utter mockery of the entire proceedings. The apartment scene between William & Arthur Teacher is worth the price of admission alone. It’s also fun to see Winifred Shaw making an appearance after joining Warren for “Curious Bride” & “The Velvet Claw” in the Mason series. And the running time is so brief, who could be bored? I may be the outlier here, but I think “Satan” is an amusing, fast moving-entertainment that I never tire of rewatching along with any other of Warren Williams’s comedic portrayals. The “Maltese Falcon” elements now strike me as part & parcel of the satirical intention ruling the roost here — a marvelous send-up of the detective genre bearing little resemblance at all to the Bogart or Cortez films, & inflected with a comedic anarchy that carries its jesting gestures to realms that approach at times the zany zones usually reserved for the Marx Brothers.

Ah, Jay, you seemed to have discovered this one in the ideal way–the movie is probably done a pretty big disservice being packaged as it currently is, though I doubt it would have been done any favors had it come out in a Bette Davis box set either!

Hopefully I gave the impression that I liked this movie, because I do, even if it is a bit messy. Now, I don’t love it by any means, but I do think I enjoy more than most–in fact, with it airing tonight I’ve already read more new and unpleasant words about it elsewhere today!

That said, you definitely like it more than I do. Again, I envy how you came to it. I didn’t find it as clever as you did, feeling that the zaniness was definitely, well zany, but that it kind of flatlined before it got to where I wanted it to go!

Agree with you about Warren and Treacher in the apartment. Hilarious and bizarre. I also really like the bandy between Warren and Skipworth where they come to their initial agreement over the horn–loved that they exchanged Mickey for Mickey and laughed over it.

I will say that I really dislike the ending of SATAN MET A LADY. I don’t want to give it away here for those who’ve yet to see it, but I especially didn’t care for the fate of the Bette Davis character, nor the way she played it.

Messy stuff. A movie doomed by comparisons, yet not so bad as the reputation it’s gained. The few times I’ve mentioned it over here I’ve been pleasantly surprised by viewers coming to its defense–I especially love to hear from people who like this one!

Just watched this last night and kind of enjoyed the screwiness of it. It was obviously meant to be a spoof of The Maltese Falcon and if you look at it that way, it works in a weird way. The acting at times is really over the top, especially by WW, but he manages to pull it off. Its definitely his movie and I found him to be quite amusing, devilish and charming all at the same time. Typical WW. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much without him.

The moment Marie Wilson fell into his arms in the beginning, I immediately thought of Alice White. It was hysterical the way she would grab the pencil out of his coat pocket to take notes. The scene with the Brit and the sherry in his apartment was brilliant. Skipworth was enjoyable, as usual, and I enjoyed the scene with them joking about the drink being poisoned. Great satire.

I was glad he ended up with Wilson at the end. Part of me always wanted him to run away to France with White at the conclusion of Employees Entrance, so this kind of filled that void for me.

All i all, quite an odd and entertaining picture that I was surprised I enjoyed so much after all the negative reviews Ive read. But, odd can be good and in this case it is. A fun romp!

Thanks for your comment, glad that you enjoyed it and saw some of the positives in it that others have. I guess that the positive side to so many people hating this movie is that it is available to be hated–at least people are watching it! And for every 10, or maybe 50, that hate it, it seems one or two of use come away liking it, or at least thinking that it’s not quite that bad!

Warren William with Helen Twelvetrees

Helen Twelvetrees and Warren William in a publicity shot taken while both were on loan to Columbia. Twelvetrees was appearing in My Woman, and Warren in Lady for a Day. My book, Helen Twelvetrees, Perfect Ingenue, is available at Amazon.

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